Interactive content utilizes engagement and participation from its audience. It’s used to craft engaging, memorable experiences—and brands are catching on. Studies show consumer attention is prolonged by 47% with interactive video ads vs. non-interactive ads, which is leading more brands to invest in interactive content.
The Benefits of Interactive Content
Increased Engagement
Interactive content is designed to have the audience engage with it. Think of it as an active audience vs. a passive audience.
Memorable Experiences
The personal experience of interactive content leaves a lasting impression. Your audience is more likely to remember something they actually participated in rather than something they sat back and watched.
Repeat Viewings
Interactive content can have multiple outcomes depending on the audience’s choices. The different experiences allow the viewer to engage with the content again and again for new iterations.
Data Tracking
Interactive content produces wonderful data. See what your audience clicked most, or what they didn’t click at all. With each interaction, you can learn a little bit more about your audience.
Interactive Content Examples
Choose Your Own Path
This interactive music video for Coldplay’s song “Ink” has the viewer take control of a man as he searches for his lost love. Choose different paths or different items to pick up over the course of the story. The video features over 300 possible outcomes for the protagonist, so the viewer can play the interactive video over and over again, switching up their choices along the way. And—spoiler alert—not all paths lead to your love, so choose wisely!
Unitron’s first-person perspective video allows the viewer to step into the shoes of Alex, a Unitron customer. Alex is on holiday with friends, and, via separate nodes, the viewer can choose which activities Alex embarks on throughout their holiday, and, in turn, discover the difference that Discover hearing aids can make.
Learn more about Unitron’s choose your own path video and how it was made.
Informative Interaction
In this video, the viewer is given a behind the scenes look at the different shots of The Jungle Book pre-CGI and post-CGI. By gliding the reticule along the bottom of the video, the image will gradually turn from the CGI finished product into a green screen set. The video also includes hot spots throughout with extra information about the making of the film.
Interactive Quizzes
The Heineken Go Places interview uses a series of questions as a promotional recruitment tool. In the video, viewers are asked to answer questions for Heineken in the context of a job interview. As the video continues, the audience learns more about what it would be like to work for the company. In the end, they receive a personality profile and a prompt to submit a resume to Heineken. The 7-minute video holds the viewer’s attention since they must answer each question along the way to see their results.
In Knorr’s Flavour Profile, the viewer is asked to select their preferred flavours from a selection of foods. After answering 12 questions, they receive a flavour profile along with a list of recipes they might enjoy. This strategic piece of content hooks people with delicious photos of food and a desire to see their own personal results.
360 Video
360 videos are an incredible tool for showcasing both indoor and outdoor spaces because they give the viewer a complete panoramic view of an environment. You can use 360 video for home tours, extreme sports, nature views, and unique experiences. 360 videos are a particularly excellent tool for real estate agents, as they allow the viewer and potential homebuyer to explore an entire home without ever leaving the comfort of their own.
This video focuses on the importance of spatial awareness for people who wear hearing aids. The viewer is placed at the centre bar of a pub and asked to identify where the different sounds and voices around them are coming from. To complete this task, the viewer must explore the digital space without ever leaving their central vantage point. *Use headphones and view in iOS or the Android YouTube app for the best viewing experience.
Interactive Challenges
For the release of the 2015 film Focus, Warner Bros. created a gamified interactive promotional experience. In the first-person perspective interactive video, the viewer takes control of a con artist and is given three different ‘marks’ to observe and then steal from. The viewer can succeed or fail, depending on the dialogue options they select. After the segment is complete, the viewer is allowed to go back and try what they’ve learned on the two other marks.
BMW’s interactive challenge asks the viewer to track model Gigi Hadid after she gets into 1 of 5 identical BMWs. As the cars race down the road, repeatedly weaving in and out of each other’s way, the viewer is asked to keep their eyes on the original car holding Gigi. At the end, the viewer must identify which one Gigi is in. The additional element of competition in this video makes it more likely that the viewer will replay the video in order to try the challenge again. The nature of the challenge engages the audience and may convince them to share it with their friends.
Purely Entertainment
In the interactive video set to Bob Dylan’s classic song “Like a Rolling Stone,” the viewer can cycle through 16 different channels of faux daytime television. Each station is complete with actors and celebrities lip-synching the lyrics. Every different channel plays out for the entire duration of the song, so the viewer can watch as much or as little of one channel as they please, and switch to another channel without missing a literal beat.
Pick between different cartoon images of a couple in various states of happiness and unhappiness, all to the tune of Jeff Buckley’s cover of Bob Dylan’s classic “Just Like a Woman.” There are several different ways to change the narrative of the love story on display and the potential to influence the music itself. The video begins with Jeff Buckley’s voice and guitar, and by the end could have choir and orchestra.
Ready to Make Interactive Content?
Memory Tree is proud to be at the forefront of interactive content, Virtual Reality, and 360 video. Contact us to learn more about how these leading media trends can help your business.
